To mark the anniversary, and to remember the lives of those lost, Northlanders from all walks of life gathered near the waterfront in Canal Park Saturday morning.

The ceremony featured poetry, song, and a litany remembering what organizers call the lost opportunities that nuclear weapons cost the nation, and the world.

Marine Corps veteran John Pegg is a member of Veterans for Peace Chapter 80, one of the organizations co–sponsoring the ceremony.

He says the issue of nuclear weapons is still prevalent today.

'We need to remember things from our history that are unpleasant, and in retrospect we might not feel good about," said Pegg, "but they say that those who don't remember history are condemned to repeat it."

The same organizations met at Duluth's Japanese Peace Garden on Wednesday to remember the victims of the Hiroshima bombing.

According to the Nagasaki Peace Park, 73,884 people were killed from the atomic bomb blast over the city.